Ric is better than web maybe by a little bit. He is also getting the treatment webber never had. So that goes long ways. Just look at vettel the other side of the coin sucks. Ric did not deserve this win.

In fairness we can’t compare Senna to Vettel, Hamilton or whoever but we do this all the time… @fer-no65@xtwl

Let’s be real, comparison are difficult in any sport and it’s even harder in F1 but bearing this in mind I still see more in Dan Ricciardo than I’ve ever seem in Mark. He qualifies better, gets “off the blocks” better, pushes Seb harder… sorry guys.

@jcost, certainly Ric is proving to be better now than Web last year, but better than Webbo ever was may be a stretch, Ric never did anything in a Torro Rosso that Webber didn’t do in a Minardi, had Webber gone to the right team earlier in his career he might have had similar success, that said Ricciardo is looking like a star in the making right now.

I voted 9 because the crash kind of ruined the ending. otherwise, truly awesome. one little annoyance was the director constantly cutting to useless shots of the crowd – crowd shots are good, but not if you’re missing action.

I gave it an 8. I didn’t think the racing was quite at the same level as Bahrain (I wasn’t hyperventilating this time). I’m very happy for Ricciardo but had Mercedes not had problems no-one else would be close to taking it to them. The racing between Hamilton and Rosberg was momentarily interesting but they were both having difficulties by then and it wasn’t so much racing as capitalizing on mistakes and mechanical issues. Still, a very good race.

So you prefer the Mercs just leaving the rest of the field in their dust and then you would call it a good race? You have to be kidding. Lets hope that the rest of the field catch up to the Mercs because only then we will see great to exceptional racing (like the Canadian GP) and not the ordinary 2 drivers that would not even get a podium if they won’t driving the Mercs e.g. put Nico and Lewis in the RB”s or the Ferraris and then see where they would end up, no where.

Yes, I think (being a little biased) massa deserved to finish ahead of Perez, and it was just an unfortunate quirk of DRS that led to Massa misjudging it. Obviously it was Massa’s fault, but having had the chance to get at least a podium from the race, he was probably a little too hasty to get past, another lap and he could have got him on the line.

I think Massa had a car and strategy which was capable of winning this race, he didn’t win and regardless of where the blame lay for his collision I think Massa’s drive was poor – a better driver in his car would have won the race.

Brilliant drive by Checo though, I was surprised the team didn’t keep him out longer in his first stint, given that Hulkenberg was doing a good job at holding back his competitors meaning there was no risk coming from behind him and the longer he could go the easier the end of the race would have been for him.

@jerseyf1 I think Checo was the key. If Dan managed to clear him earlier I think both Seb and Massa would give Rosberg a run for his money. But you’re right, Massa should have made better use of his 10 laps younger tyres and his straight line speed despite everybody in front making use of their “straightforward overtake device” (a.k.a DRS).

I agree – Massa should have done much better. He had better tyres and the fastest top speed, and flew up to the back of the lead pack of 4 between lap 58 and 62. He had a strong chance to win that race, and he blew it. As a Williams fan, he was very disappointing. Especially not using using DRS when he’d finally set up a move on Vettel on lap 64. It seemed like he opened it and then shut it again. Very strange.

He should have scored a podium as a minimum. Those are some very valuable points that have been squandered.

I think it was just the speed difference between a Williams with DRS and a slower Force India without DRS, that’s probably about 30 or more MPH difference, and maybe Perez got on the brakes early to save his brakes, not expecting a charge from Massa, exacerbating the problem. I could be completely wrong though the BBC didn’t show the replay that many times.

Yes, but ignore Massa for a second and watch Perez start to drift left off the racing line? Why was he moving to the left when he clearly had to swing wide right for that turn to be on the racing line?
I think Massa clearly expected him to follow Vettel wide right as he got online for that left turn.

Massa was desperate to overtake Perez as he was approaching the corner (and Perez couldn’t do anything, he didn’t even know what hit him) as the laps were running out and he went in too deep on the inside and couldn’t brake and collided with Perez, very amateurish move and it should be reprimanded by the stewards because that was dangerous and could have cost lives.

Yes exactly, had results gone his way, Lewis may not have made the mistake he did, and then got pole, leading to a fairly straight forward race, with Rosberg drawing the short stick. But, I’m sure Rosberg will receive the bad luck he is owed soon.

Bad Luck again… well maybe it’s not only the bad luck. They mentioned during the race that Rosberg has set his brakes more towards fronts and Lewis the opposite. that could a big cnributor. Also Lewis is more aggressive on the brakes so in my view it wasn’t just the bad luck, rather the driver and a bit hard driving.

I gave it a 1. Another race where the winner was decided by the team. Ric had no right for the 1st place. Red bull gave him that strategy followed by team orders for vettel not to pressure or attack him.

@f1andy83 I’m a Vettel fan, but if the team orders that it’s because they manage telemetry data and they know what is going on… even Vettel didn’t look angry, so why are you so into it? Move on, it was a great race.

@f1andy83 Surely that great overtake round the outside of turn 1 gave him some right to 1st place!

Also, with regards to vettel being told not to attack Ric. We’ve seen in the past with Vettel that if there’s a race win on the cards he’s passing his teammate whatever the team say. If he could have passed Ric, he would have done it.

@f1andy83 a 1? Really? That was a very enjoyable race. Even if your preferred driver didn’t win, you’re going to give a score of 1 to a race with a surfeit of action, plenty of overtakes and a brand new winner and a team other than Mercedes taking the win? Hardly reasonable. Maybe you felt you needed to somehow balance out all the people giving it 10/10?

I cannot rate. As a mexican that was just….. devastating. I was praying for a victory, but only we get a massive accident. It’s so difficult to put a 10. After this….. Best since Bahrain, a thriller, devasting and emotional race. It’s the most emotional race I’ve seen…… screw Perez this a Big, Wonderful 10.

I don’t know why the Hulk opted for this unorthodox strategy. Whenever he and his team try to outwit the field, they fail and don’t even get close to the podium. All he shold’ve had to do is start on ssoft and do what Checo did, what was indeed impressive, btw.

FI chose to split their strategies, 1 stop for both but SS-Soft for Perez compared to Soft-SS for Hulk (exactly as they did last year i think). I think part of the reason it worked so well for Perez was the early safety car allowing him to extend his SS stint. His advantage to Hulk would have been less in the end if not for the safety car, so a fair enough gamble for both i would say given they both started outside the top 10.

Go on Danny Ric! Superb job, he has been top class all season so far. Vettel must be kicking himself privately, Ricciardo got the move done past Perez where Seb couldn’t earlier in the race. Fair play to him though, he was very congratulatory in parc ferme to Ricciardo. I gave it a 9 only because I think Bahrain was slightly better and I gave that a 10.

True Ricciardo had the good fortune that Perez’s brakes were going. It’s not really a criticism of Vettel, the Red Bull clearly doesn’t have the speed of the Force India down the straight. It’s just that time stuck behind Checo gave Ricciardo the track position. Without it that could quite easily have been Vettel overtaking Rosberg at the end.

@debaser91 neither one could overtake on his own merit, only Perez’ failing breaks and old tires enabled both to overtake. The only thing he could kick himself a bit is RBRs strategy which was a bit sub-optimal for both.